Modem computer graphics systems, including digital video systems, are used for numerous applications such as electronic shopping, viewing movies and television programs, and playing computer games. In general, these applications are launched by the computer graphics system's operating system upon selection by a user from a menu or other graphical user interface (“GUI”). A GUI is used to convey information to and receive commands from users and generally includes a variety of GUI objects or controls, including icons, toolbars, drop-down menus, text, dialog boxes, buttons, and the like. A user typically interacts with a GUI by using a pointing device (e.g., a mouse) to position a pointer or cursor over an object and “clicking” on the object.
One problem with these computer graphics systems is their inability to effectively display detailed information for selected graphic objects when those objects are in the context of a larger image. A user may require access to detailed information with respect to an object in order to closely examine the object, to interact with the object, or to interface with an external application or network through the object. For example, the detailed information may be a close-up view of the object. It may also be pricing and delivery information for a product displayed by an electronic shopping application. Or, the detailed information could be a control panel for a character in a computer game.
A similar problem arises upon launch of these applications. The menus displayed to launch applications, which are generally comprised of lists of programs (i.e. in the case of operating systems) and function selections (i.e. in the case of software applications), often obscure or occlude other important information on the user's display screen including data, desktop icons, and other graphical objects.
While an application may provide “pop-up” windows or “pull-down” menus for a user to access and view detailed information for a selected object in a larger image, in doing so, the relative location of the object in the larger image may be lost to the user. That is, the pop-up window or pull-down menu may obscure a portion of the larger image necessary for effective interaction with the object. Thus, while the user may have gained access to the detailed information required to interact with the object, the user may lose sight of the context within which that object is positioned in the larger image. This is an example of what is often referred to as the “screen real estate problem”.
The screen real estate problem is evident in the interactive electronic shopping system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,583 to Kenney. In Kenney, the interactive electronic shopping system includes: a digital camera to digitize a shopping facility into digital signals representing images of the shopping facility; a central computer data base to store the digital signals; a communication link connected to the central computer data base; a local computer connected to the communication link; and, a control interface connected to the local computer to enable a shopper to control the local computer such that the local computer obtains data from the central computer data base in response to the digital signals stored therein and displays video images of the shopping facility in response to the obtained data. Detailed information concerning a selected item in the shopping facility is displayed to the user in a pop-up window. Unfortunately, the pop-up window obscures a significant portion of the shopping facility image and hence the user may lose sight of the context of the selected item in the larger shopping facility image.
The screen real estate problem is also evident in the video game apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,930 to Kawagoe, et al. In Kawagoe, et al., a number of “virtual cameras” are used to provide a user with detailed views about a game character as it moves through the landscape of the game. Unfortunately, the switching from virtual camera to virtual camera in Kawagoe, et al., neither provides the user with the context of his game character within the larger environment of the game landscape nor improves accessibility to detailed control information for interacting with the game character.